By JACK BELL

April 22, 2014

Thierry Henry scored 51 career goals for France, but none was more memorable — or controversial — than the last one he set up for Les Bleus.

So perhaps it is fitting that with 51 days to go until the start of the 2014 World Cup, we track back to Nov. 18, 2009, the final day of qualifying for the 2010 World Cup in South Africa.

With minutes to go before a penalty-kick shootout, and with France and Ireland tied, 1-1, on aggregate (and on away goals), Henry performed an act that will forever be reviled in Ireland, revered in France and compared to the first Hand of God goal, by Diego Maradona against England at the 1986 World Cup.

After the match, Henry, now a striker for the New York Red Bulls who is in the final year of his contract with Major League Soccer, was contrite, but he said basically that the hand ball should have been seen by an array of match officials. If you see something, say something. No one did.

Henry and France went on to play in the tournament in South Africa, but it was a trip that ended in dissension, with Nicolas Anelka and some of his teammates rebelling against the way the team was being managed. Henry did not start a match in South Africa and France did not win one, heading home after a first-round loss to the host nation.